The MY WEB 2.0 web service, available from Yahoo! Inc., is an example of a web-scale social search engine that enables users to find, use, share and expand human knowledge. It allows users to save and tag Web objects, allowing for browsing and searching of objects, as well as sharing Web objects within a personalized community or to the public. Further, the MY WEB 2.0 Web service provides scoped searches within a user's trusted social network (e.g., friends and friends of friends). As a consequence, the search results are personalized and spam-filtered by trusted networks.
To experience the full benefits of personalized search results, a user typically must subscribe to the web service and create a profile that lists the names of the user's trusted social network. The user must include an email address or another personal identifier, so that each member of the social network can be accurately identified. Next, a database must be populated with Web objects, or links to Web objects, that the user and the user's network of friends have saved and tagged. This implies that the members of the user's social network must also be subscribers to the web service. After completing this process, the databases for the web service would be ready to enable the user to enjoy the benefits of personalized searches.
However, to complete the above process, the user must expend a considerable amount of time to collect the requisite data about the members of the user's social network. Considerable effort must also be expended to populate the databases with saved and tagged objects. As such, a user, including the members of the user's social network, can be initially discouraged from seeking the advantages of personalized web services.
Therefore, what is need is a system and method that overcome the above-noted shortcomings and provide an efficient and effective means for establishing a social network for sharing, discovery and recovery.